The prowling lion
The enemy in the wilderness
The wilderness is where the enemy prowls. He came to Jesus in the desert at His hungriest, after forty days with nothing, and he comes to us the same way, in the lean and disoriented hours, because that is where we are easiest to take. Peter does not soften it. He names an adversary, a roaring lion walking the perimeter, looking for someone to devour. The image is meant to sober us, not to terrify us. It tells the truth a tidy account of the wilderness leaves out: that the disorientation is not always merely circumstantial, not only grief and confusion and bad luck, but sometimes a season in which an enemy is at work, exploiting the very weakness the wilderness has opened. And yet the same Peter who names the lion does not counsel panic. He counsels something steadier. Be sober. Be watchful. Withstand him, firm in the faith. The lion is real, but he is met, and he is met by the unflashy work of staying alert and standing your ground. Knowing this changes the wilderness without ending it. You stop blaming only yourself for every dark thought, and you stop being naive about where some of them come from. You learn to watch, and to resist.
“Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
— Peter — 1 Peter 5:8 (WEB)
“Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings.”
Disorientation has a dimension we are slow to name: the wilderness is where the enemy prowls, drawn to the weakness it opens in us. This phase asks for sobriety rather than either fear or naivety. It asks you to recognize that not every dark voice in the wilderness is your own, and to meet the prowling lion not by panic but by alert, steadfast resistance, firm in the faith.
Much of the cruelty of a long disorientation is that it leaves you undefended, and an enemy knows it. When you are most depleted is exactly when the lion paces closest, and he does not invent new lies; he finds the old ones easier to plant in tired soil. God has abandoned you. Your prayers go nowhere. You may as well stop. These are not always your own conclusions, arrived at by honest reasoning. These are not always your own conclusions, reasoned out honestly; sometimes they are suggestions, and they have an author who means you harm. To name that is not superstition; it is sobriety.
The danger of refusing to name it is that you absorb every dark whisper as simple fact, and the danger of naming it badly is that you see a devil behind every disappointment and live in fear. So be sober, be watchful, and resist him, firm in the faith. And remember you are not the only one fighting it. Peter steers between both. He says the lion is real, and then he says resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being accomplished in your brothers throughout the world. The wilderness has a spiritual dimension. So does the One who keeps you in it, and He is stronger than the lion who walks its edge.
A disoriented Church faces more than circumstantial decline; it faces an adversary who works the confusion and discouragement, a roaring lion walking the perimeter and looking for someone to devour. The wilderness has a spiritual dimension the tidy accounts leave out, and the whole Body has known seasons when an enemy seemed to be exploiting the very weakness the age had opened. Peter counsels no panic, only sobriety: be watchful, be self-controlled, withstand him firm in the faith, knowing the same sufferings are being accomplished in the family of believers throughout the world. A faith that names the battle soberly, before a watching world, holds ground it would otherwise surrender to despair. The lion is real, but he is met; and the One who keeps His people firm is stronger than the lion who walks the edge of their wilderness.
The lion can rage and prowl, but he cannot be the last word, for he too belongs to what is being shaken and removed. What cannot be shaken is the God who keeps you firm in the faith and outlasts every adversary. Resist him, and stand; the enemy is removed, and the One you cling to remains.
- Where in my wilderness might a dark thought be a suggestion of the enemy rather than simple fact?
- Am I more tempted to ignore the spiritual battle entirely, or to see a devil behind every trouble?
- What would it look like for me to resist, firm in the faith, instead of merely absorbing the lion's lies?
Lord, in this lean season I have taken every dark whisper as fact and forgotten that an enemy prowls. Make me sober and watchful. Let me stand firm in the faith and resist the lies I have believed. Remind me that others fight the same battle, and that You are stronger than the lion. Amen.